R,R,R and - oops

Good (for some people) to see education secretary Michael Gove insisting that children should be tested on the fundamentals of grammar and punctuation before they move into secondary education.


Not so good, though, for the leader of the biggest teaching union, the NASUWT (an anagram of  'Aw, nuts!', you might notice), who believes it to be an attack on teachers. It couldn't possibly be that a lot of teachers don't have enough of a grasp of the fundamentals of the structure of English to be able to teach them, having been trained during the decades when such things were considered irrelevant.


Good, too, that employers complain that they are forced to provide school-leavers with remedial tuition in the three Rs. They might also like to add History to RRR, for Mr Gove, in a separate volley against school governing bodies, says


“We cannot have a 21st century education system with governance structures designed to suit 19th century parochial church councils.”

Oops, 0/10 for history, Mr Gove. Parochial church councils weren't introduced until 1921.